STORIES
JUOIII
LENIN
COMPILED BY A.KRAYCHENKO
( @JUuSira
buH. LYAMIN
CONTENTS
Who the Tsar Was
How the Peasants Lived Under the Tsar
How the Landowners Lived
How the Workers Used to Live
The Factory and Mill Owners
How the Landowners Kept the Peasants in Check ....
Why Workers Were Imprisoned
Brave Fighters Against the Tsars •
The Ulyanov Children
Vladimir Ulyanov
St. Petersburg , a City of Workers
Vladimir Ulyanov and His Friends in St. Petersburg
Vladimir Ulyanov at a Workers’ Circle
The League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working
Class
Vladimir Ulyanov in Exile
Iskra
Comrade Lenin
How the Workers Took Up Arms
How the Peasants Tried to Get Rid of the Landlords
Lenin Knew the Workers and Peasants Were Strong
Why the Rulers Started a War Among the Peoples
The Workers and Soldiers of Russia Get Rid of the Tsar
Lenin, the Workers, Soldiers and Peasants Join Forces
The Great October Socialist Revolution
Lenin, Head of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government
The Union of Workers and Peasants
Lenin and the Red Army
A True Friend of the Workers and Peasants of the World
5
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
34
36
38
40
42
44
46
48
50
52
54
56
58
60
Lenin is Remembered and Revered by Working People
Throughout the World 62
To Love and Safeguard the Soviet Land 65
To Be Friends With the Working People of All Lands 68
Plenty for All 70
More Knowledge and Greater Skill 74
Lenin’s Cause and Communism Will Triumph! 76
WHO THE TSAR WAS
T
M his all happened long ago. Life was very different in
Russia in those days.
Those who were wealthy had everything they could
wish for, but the workers and peasants of Russia lived in
poverty. Some of the rich owned great estates. They were
the landlords, or landowners. Others owned factories and
mills, and they were the capitalists.
5
The workers had nothing but
their own two hands with which to
work. They and their children
needed food and clothing and a
place to live. That was why the
workers hired out to the factory
and mine owners. They mined coal
and ore deep underground. They
smelted iron and steel to manufac-
ture machines which belonged to
the factory and mill owners and
which made them richer still. The
workers, however, were paid so
little for their toil that they barely
had enough money for bread.
The peasants owned tiny plots
of land, and so their harvests were
small. Quite often they could not
raise enough crops to feed their
families. That was why many
peasants had to hire out to the
landowners. They plowed and
sowed, and harvested the landow-
ners’ fields. Many peasants left for
the cities to look for jobs in the
factories and mills.
The Russian tsar was the rich-
est landowner of all. He was the
head of the State, and all the other
landowners and factory owners
were his subjects. The tsar ruled
the country and made its laws.
Under these laws the workers and
peasants had to obey the tsar and
their bosses, the landowners and
capitalists.
The police, the gendarmes and
the many officials defended the
rule of the tsar and the rich. The
tsar was the defender of the rich
and the oppressor and murderer of
the workers and the peasants.
That is who the tsar really was.
HOW THE PEASANTS LIVED
UNDER THE TSAR
— —
Mitya lived in a village. Ivan had a very small plot of land
which he plowed with a wooden plow. A skinny horse pulled
the plow. The grain he harvested was never enough to last
the family until the next harvest.
One day the village policeman came to Ivan’s house and
said, “Where’s the money for the taxes you owe the tsar?”
Since Ivan had no money, he asked the village
policeman to wait for the payment.
“If you don’t pay up now, we’ll sell your cow for taxes!”
the policeman shouted.
“Please don’t take our cow. If you do, we’ll have no food
for our boy,” Ivan pleaded.
“Either you hand it over yourself , or I’ll force you to and
then I’ll throw you into jail,” the policeman replied and
went for the cow.
Maria began to weep, for she knew she would have no
milk for her son. Mitya became frightened. He hid behind
his mother as the village policeman led off their cow. The
other peasant families who had no money for taxes had to
give the tax-collector a sheep or their chickens.
When Mitya got a little older his father said, “I can’t
support you any longer. You’ll have to find a job.”
Mitya became one of the landowner’s shepherds. He had
no time to go to school, and so he could not read or write. In
those days most peasant children did not go to school,
because they began working at an early age and because
there were very few village schools.
8
HUH
HOW THE LANDOWNERS LIVED
r
■ here was a large estate near the village where Ivan and
his family lived. A high stone fence surrounded the fine
white mansion with columns, blocking it from the peasants’
view. Each year the landowner and his family came to
spend the summer here, for the grounds and the mansion
belonged to him, as did the woods, the fields and meadows
all around the village. He was the owner of all this land.
His wife was a stout, well-dressed, stern-looking woman.
The landowner had a son named Misha.
Misha had everything a child could dream of, to say
nothing of good food. In winter Misha lived in town, where
he went to school. Children of workers, peasants were
never admitted to this school.
Misha was not allowed to play with the village children.
They were poorly dressed and illiterate. Misha’s parents
kept telling him that he was of noble birth, while the
peasants’ children were common, ragged and dirty.
This Russian landowner and his family had a life of
plenty, as did all the other landowners in those days.
10
HOW THE WORKERS OSED TO LIVE
{ van’s brother Vasily lived in town. He worked in a
munitions plant. His wife Anna was a weaver in a mill.
They had a daughter named Masha. At the crack of dawn
each day, when Masha was still asleep, Vasily and Anna
would go off to work at their machines, returning home
exhausted after dark.
All through the winter months Masha stayed indoors in
the family’s damp, dark rented room, for she had no warm
clothes or shoes to wear outside. In the summertime she
played in the dirty yard.
All the workers in Vasily’s plant and all the women in
the mill where Anna worked were as poor as they were, as
were all the working people in the land.
Many people were out of work in those days. Being out
of work meant dying of hunger, and that was why the rich
could hire an unemployed man or woman and pay them
next to nothing.
12
THE FACTORY AND MILL OWNERS
T
JLhere was a large town house on the most fashionable
street. Behind the house were a large garden, orchard and
yard with stables for the family’s fine horses and expensive
carriages. The owner of the munitions plant where Vasily
worked lived in this house.
He had a son and a daughter. Like the landowner’s son,
they, too, had everything they could wish for: good food and
many expensive toys. They were first tutored privately at
home and then went on to study at schools for the very rich.
14
HOW THE LAHDOWHERS KEPT
THE PEASANTS IN CHECK
year the harvest was very poor. The peasants in
the village had no grain and were starving, while nearby
the landowner’s granaries were filled to the top. The
peasants went to the landowner to ask him for grain. They
stood by the front steps, caps in hand, but the landowner
would not even hear of it.
“Get out, all of you! I won’t give you anything!” he
shouted.
Ivan stepped forward and said, “We’re only asking for
what we’ve earned. You didn’t plow or sow, or harvest that
gram. We were the ones who did it for you.”
That’s right!” one of the peasants shouted.
“He’s telling the truth!” another said.
“So you want to rebel? You’ll pay dearly for this!” the
landowner raged and told his servants to grab Ivan. Ivan
was then taken to town and thrown into prison. All the
other peasants who had gone to the landowner’s house to
ask for grain were flogged.
16
WHY WORKERS WERE IMPRISONED
T
M he munitions plant owner wanted to become still
richer, and so he ordered his workers to work still faster.
“Don’t agree to this,” Vasily said to his comrades. “Let’s
all stop working at once. If we do, the machines will stop,
and the boss will start losing money. Then he’ll have to give
in to our demands.”
The workers stopped working, and the wheels of their
machines came to a standstill. The workers went on strike.
They stayed out one day, and another, and a third.
The plant owner called in the police. That night the
police came to Vasily’s room and arrested him. They took
him off to jail, saying, “You’re the ringleader. You told the
workers to go on strike.”
The other striking workers were thrown into jail, too.
That was how the factory owners kept the workers in
check.
BRAVE FIGHTERS AGAINST THE TSARS
M
MV M any years ago the city of Leningrad was called
St. Petersburg. That was where the Russian tsar’s pa-
lace was. Alexander II was the tsar then. He helped the
landowners and capitalists rule over the peasants and
workers.
A group of brave men and women who wanted to help
the working people came forth at this time. They had
decided to get rid of the tsar. They said, “We must kill the
tsar, for he supports the landlords and factory owners. If we
kill him, the people will have a better life.”
A worker named Stepan Khalturin smuggled some
dynamite into the palace. There was an explosion, but the
tsar escaped. Then other brave fighters threw a bomb into
the tsar’s carriage as he was driving through the streets of
St. Petersburg and killed him. They were arrested and
executed.
The dead tsar’s son, Alexander III, now came to the
throne. Russia had a new tsar, but nothing else had
changed. The lot of the workers and the peasants had not
improved one bit.
20
THE ULYANOV CHILDREN
T
JLhe city of Ulyanovsk, which is situated on the bank of
the Volga River, was once known as Simbirsk. That was
where the Ulyanov family came from. The father, Ilya
Ulyanov, was the director of the region’s State schools. He
wanted as many village children as possible to attend
school. The mother, Maria Ulyanova, devoted all of her
time to bringing up her six children: Anna, Alexander,
Olga, Vladimir, Dmitry and Maria. Olga died in her youth,
but all of the others became fighters for a better life for
their people.
Alexander Ulyanov, the eldest son, was intelligent, kind
and just. He knew how poor the people were and wanted to
discover why this was so. Alexander left home to study at
St. Petersburg University. There he became friends with
other young students who were opposed to the tsar. They
decided to kill Alexander III. However, their plans failed,
and they were arrested.
The news of Alexander Ulyanov’s arrest reached
Simbirsk. He had been sentenced to death. Maria Ulyanova
left for St. Petersburg, hoping to save her son’s life, but she
could do nothing. Alexander was executed.
22
i
VLADIMIR ULYANOV
.......
dary school senior at the time. He was a good pupil, read a
lot and liked to play chess and to ice-skate.
When Vladimir learned of his brother’s execution he
was overcome with grief. Then he began to think about all
that had happened. He understood Alexander. Indeed, one
could sacrifice one’s life for the good of the people. But was
that really the best way to fight?
“It’s not only a matter of being ruled by a tsar,”
Vladimir said to himself. “If you kill one tsar, the rich will
simply put another one in his place. The tsar, the rich
landowners and the capitalists are so powerful because
they own the land, the factories and the mills. That means
that the land, the factories and the mills should be given
over to those who work. But how can this be done? Who will
be able to do this?”
Vladimir studied hard. He spent much of his time
reading and thinking. Then he, too, left for St. Petersburg.
24
ST. PETERSBURG, A CITY OF WORKERS
¥
■® asily had been released from prison, but could not get
his old job back.
“We don’t want troublemakers,” the manager said to
him. Now Vasily was out of work. He could not find a job
anywhere else in town, either.
That was why Vasily sold the family’s belongings and
used the money for train tickets. Anna, Masha and he
moved to St. Petersburg where there were many large
factories and mills that employed thousands of workers.
Vasily found a job in a large plant. Anna and Masha both
went to work in a mill. Besides, Masha began attending an
evening school for workers where she learned to read and
write.
The family was now settled in St. Petersburg. They
knew first-hand what hard lives the city’s thousands of
workers led. The bosses were robbing them by not paying
them fair wages. However, although there were very few
bosses, they had thousands of workers slaving for them.
That meant the workers had to rise up against their bosses
and fight till they won.
VLADIMIR ULYANOV
AND HIS FRIENDS IN ST. PETERSBURG
j n St. Petersburg Vladimir Ulyanov became acquainted
with workers and students who wanted the working people
to have a better life. They all admired the brave fighters
against the tsar, but they saw that these fighters were
being killed off one by one. That meant they had to lead the
entire people against all of the country’s rich.
Vasily Shelgunov and Ivan Babushkin, both workers,
Gleb Krzhizhanovsky and Zinaida Nevzorova, two stu-
dents, and Nadezhda Krupskaya, a teacher in an evening
school for workers, became Vladimir Ulyanov’s closest
friends. They knew the life of the working people
first-hand and had read a lot about the way workers in
other countries were fighting for better conditions.
“We must go to the workers,” they decided. “In the
factories they work side by side. They know how to stand up
for each other and how to organize strikes. We must help
them unite their forces for the common struggle.”
Vladimir and his friends organized workers’ circles.
There they spoke to the workers and explained why they
were wrong in fighting against the owner of just one
factory or mill instead of depriving all the landlords and all
the capitalists of their wealth and power, because the
workers and the peasants were the true masters of the
land. Together the workers and peasants would form a
great force. Together they could bring about a new, bright
and happy future for all working people.
28
I. V. BABUSHKIN
B. L ZINOVYEV
P. S. GRIBAKIN
N. G. POLETAYEV
Z. P. NEVZOROVA
N. K. KRUPSKAYA
V. A. SHELGUNOV
M. I. KALININ
G. M. KRZHIZHANOVSKY
VLADIMIR ULYANOV
AT A WORKERS’ CIRCLE
A
■ ■- 1 the plant Vasily soon got to know a worker named
Pavel. One day Pavel said to him, “Come to our meeting.
You’ll learn a lot of important things there. But be careful!
If the tsar’s gendarmes find out about the meeting, we’ll all
be arrested.”
Vasily was there at the appointed hour. He recognized
several of the other men who were from his plant. Then a
young man arrived whom Vasily had never seen before.
The young man had keen, intelligent brown eyes. He asked
the workers to tell him about their living conditions. Then
he began to speak.
“The capitalists are making you slave for them,
comrades. The tsar and his officials defend the rich. They
throw you into jail, because you don’t want to live in
poverty. You must unite and rise up against the tsar, the
landlords and capitalists.”
That was how Vladimir Ulyanov began his first lecture
at the workers’ circle. The members of this circle, all of
whom were from Vasily’s plant, met once a week to study
together. Soon they began to understand that the workers’
main task was to join forces against the rich and build a
happy life for themselves.
Vladimir Ulyanov spoke at other workers’ circles, too,
as did his friends. They told the workers about the huge
profits the bosses were making at their expense. They
began printing leaflets and books about this.
The most progressive and bravest men and women
belonged to these circles. If they were arrested they did not
lose heart. The moment they were released or escaped from
prison they would again join the fight against the tsar and
the rich.
30
THE LEAGUE OF STRUGGLE
FOR THE EMAHCIPATION
OF THE WORKING CLASS
U oon there were many workers’ circles in St. Peters-
burg, but they were all independent of each other. Each
circle had from five to seven members who only knew what
was going on at their own factory or mill. However, it was
important that the members of each circle know about the
work of the other circles and of the way their comrades in
other factories and mills were fighting against the bosses.
This would make them all feel stronger. Then they could
say, “See how many of us there are. We’re all for one and
one for all.”
Vladimir Ulyanov and his friends now headed the work
of all the workers’ circles in St. Petersburg. In secret they
organized the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of
the Working Class. The members of the League knew that
the tsar’s supporters would be after them, would arrest and
imprison them, but they were not afraid. The victory of the
workers and the peasants was what mattered most.
Vladimir Ulyanov headed the work of the League.
Although he was only 23 years old at the time, his
comrades called him “Old Man”. That was because he knew
so much, because he could plan ahead and because he was
able to put such spirit into their work.
32
VLADIMIR ULYANOV IN EXILE
D
1 Sy following Vladimir Ulyanov the tsar’s police spies
discovered that he was a revolutionary. He and his
comrades were arrested. They spent over a year in prison
before the trial and were then sentenced to exile in far-off
Siberia. At the time Siberia was not at all like it is now:
there were no large cities, no factories or mills there.
Vladimir Ulyanov was exiled to Shushenskoye, a
- age lost in the wilderness. It was a long journey from
there to the nearest village. Yet, he did not become
downhearted, for he knew the workers had not given up
their struggle. One had to know a lot to win that struggle,
and so Vladimir Ulyanov read many books while in exile.
His sisters, his brother Dmitry and his friends all sent him
books.
V ladimir Ulyanov also wrote many articles addressed to
the workers. He was drawing up a plan of the future
struggle. A plan that would unite the workers of the entire
country and not only of a single city. He decided that they
would have to have a workers’ newspaper. It would unite
them in their common struggle.
Nadezhda Krupskaya was also exiled. She was given
permission to reside in Shushenskoye, and she and
Vladimir Ulyanov were married there. From then on they
carried on the fight together.
ISKRA
l^ittle streams flow onward to form a river. Ever new
streams and tributaries join the river, making it broad and
mighty. When the working people began their struggle
against the tsar and the rich it was like a river starting on
its course.
At first, there were small secret workers’ circles at some
of the factories and mills. Then the members of the circles
came to know each other and began working together,
setting up new workers’ organizations in St. Petersburg,
Moscow and Kiev, in the factory settlements in the Urals
and in other parts of Russia. The members of these
organizations were faithful comrades who would never
betray their cause, no matter how great the danger. The
time had come to unite all workers’ circles in the country.
Vladimir Ulyanov’s term of exile ended. Since he was
not allowed to live in St. Petersburg, he settled in a nearby
town and summoned his comrades there. They would decide
on the publication of a newspaper Vladimir Ulyanov had
thought about so much all during his exile.
They would not be able to publish a paper which told the
people the truth about the hard life of the workers and the
peasants and about their struggle against the tsar and the
rich in Russia. That was why Vladimir Ulyanov went
abroad and was joined by other comrades who shared his
ideas. Soon they were putting out a newspaper. It was
called Iskra, which means “The Spark”. It was a difficult
and dangerous task to smuggle the newspaper into Russia.
Many of the people connected with the paper were
imprisoned and exiled for this.
The workers of Russia now had their own newspaper.
Iskra helped them to join their forces, which were growing
from day to day as workers throughout the country united
against the tsar and the factory owners.
36
COMRADE LENIN
v
Mladimir Ulyanov was the editor-in-chief of Iskra. He
worked long hours every day. In the morning the mailman
would deliver a large packet of newspapers which he
subscribed to. The newspapers were in Russian, English,
German, French and Italian. Although Vladimir Ulyanov
was a quick reader, he never left anything out or forgot
what he might later use in his work. Vladimir Ulyanov also
wrote very quickly. He wrote letters to his comrades in
Russia and asked the workers to send in articles and
questions to which they would like an answer to the
newspaper. He also wrote articles and books.
The tsar’s officials were afraid of Vladimir Ulyanov’s
articles and books. If gendarmes searched a worker’s room
and found a copy of Iskra or a book written by Vladimir
Ulyanov they would arrest the worker and sentence him to
prison or exile. That was why Vladimir Ulyanov began
signing his articles and books with names that were not his
own. One of the names he used was Lenin.
This became a name the workers revered and loved, for
they knew that Lenin would always tell them the truth.
And he did.
“Our struggle will be a very difficult one. The landow-
ners and the capitalists will not give up their riches of their
own free will,” Lenin said.
The Iskra staff organized a congress of workers’
organizations of Russia. The delegates to this congress
discussed ways of fighting against the tsar and the rich and
of bringing the peasants into their struggle so that together
they could overcome their enemies. If they succeeded the
land, factories and mills would then belong to the people.
That meant the workers and peasants would be working for
themselves and not for a handful of bosses.
At this congress the Iskra group, headed by Lenin,
formed a party. This party was the vanguard of all working
people fighting for communism.
38
HOW THE WORKERS TOOK UP ARMS
^^ith each passing year life in Russia was becoming
more difficult for the workers and the peasants. The tsar
declared war on Japan, for the Russian landowners and
factory owners wanted to gain new lands.
On January 9, 1905 the workers of St. Petersburg, their
wives and children set out for the tsar’s palace. They
wanted to tell the tsar about their hard lives and their
poverty. They thought the tsar would take pity on them,
but instead he ordered his troops to open fire on them.
Many people were killed that day. From then on even the
most ignorant workers stopped thinking that the tsar
would help them. They finally came to understand that
only by fighting against the tsar would they ever have a
better life.
Workers in many of the factories and mills of St.
Petersburg went on strike. The tsar’s troops were ordered to
a
open fire on them. How could the workers defend them-
selves? They began putting up road blocks to stop the
soldiers. They used fallen telegraph poles, boards, barrels
and anything else that came to hand.
“The workers are building barricades!” the people said
and many helped them. Red flags waved on the barricades.
The red of the flags symbolized the blood shed by the
workers in their struggle for a better life. The lettering on
the flags read*
“Freedom or death!”, “Down with the tsar!”
The workers turned up paving stones and threw them at
the soldiers, for there were not enough rifles and revolvers
for all. Workers in other cities joined the fight against the
tsar and his troops but they, too, were poorly armed.
Lenin appealed to all Party members and to all workers:
“To arms! You must learn to shoot!” Money was collected
for arms that were purchased abroad. Courageous Party
members smuggled these arms into Russia, where they
were distributed among the workers.
There were pitched battles on the streets of Moscow in
which the workers fought valiantly.
In November Vladimir Lenin, using an alias, arrived in
St. Petersburg where he spoke at mass meetings of workers
and helped to strengthen and organize the Party’s forces for
the struggle ahead.
HOW THE PEASANTS TRIED TO GET RID
OF THE LANDLORDS
I
ml here was unrest in the villages as well.
“Let’s get rid of the landowner. He owns as much land as
the peasants in ten villages do. He and his children are
rolling in money, while our children go begging for bread,”
Ivan said to his fellow-villagers.
The peasants armed themselves with axes, scythes and
fence poles and attacked the manor house. The landlord
became frightened. He got into his carriage, and his fine
horses carried him and his family off.
The peasants divided up the landlord’s stores of grain.
They plowed his land, and their children now played on the
landlord’s well-kept grounds.
Peasants in some villages chased out their landlords,
but in many others they were afraid to do so, for they were
still not united in their struggle.
42
Hrfito P'/
LENIN KNEW THE WORKERS AND PEASANTS
WERE STRONG
I
JLhe factory owners and landlords appealed to the tsar
for help, and the tsar told his soldiers not to spare their
bullets in putting down the uprising.
The workers were poorly armed. They had too few
rifles and revolvers, while the tsar’s troops were armed
with machine-guns and cannons. The peasants had no
arms at all, nothing but pitchforks and scythes, and so
the soldiers mowed them down, slashing them with their
sabres and bayonetting them. Many workers were killed
in the cities. Many peasants were killed in the villages,
still greater numbers of workers and peasants were
thrown into jails, exiled to places where they were sure
to die or were executed. Vasily was killed at this time.
This uprising of workers and peasants was put down.
The tsar’s police spies were looking high and low for
Lenin. His comrades barely managed to conduct him
safely abroad again. On a dark night Lenin was guided
across the thin ice of the Bay of Finland and narrowly
escaped drowning. Soon, however, he was back at his post
of leading the Party and the workers’ struggle.
Many believed that the workers would never win the
battle against the tsar, the landowners and the capita-
lists. They said it had been a mistake for them to have
taken up arms.
Lenin, however, said and wrote that the workers and
the peasants were strong, that they had learned much
from this uprising and must be better armed. He said the
peasants should be better organized for the struggle
ahead and that the workers and peasants should unite.
Lenin said the struggle should not be forgotten and the
people should prepare for still greater battles ahead.
44
WHY THE RULERS STARTED A WAR
AMOHG THE PEOPLES
T
here are many countries in the world inhabited by
many peoples. At that time all the countries were ruled
by kings or the rich, all of whom wanted to become still
richer. That is why the capitalists of various countries
warred against each other. They wanted to snatch each
other’s land and riches and make the conquered working
people slave for them.
In 1914 the Russian tsar and the German Kaiser
began such a war. The capitalists of other countries took
sides and also sent their soldiers into battle. Mitya,
Ivan’s son, was called up for active service. At the front
lines he was forced to kill young German and Turkish
workers and peasants. They, in turn, slaughtered the
Russian, English and French workers and peasants.
While the working people were being killed on the
battlefields, the capitalists and rich landowners were
living happy lives in their fine homes, selling their
governments grain, cannons, rifles and other goods for
the armies and making fortunes.
Lenin called upon the working people of all lands to
end the war, to stop killing each other. He said they were
all brothers and that they all had the same enemies: the
capitalists and landowners, and their rulers. He called
upon the soldiers to turn their guns against their
common enemies.
The Communists of Russia agreed with this. They
appealed to the workers, peasants and soldiers to turn
their guns against the tsar and the rich. They circulated
46
leaflets and pamphlets in secret among the population
and the soldiers at the front lines. One of these leaflets
was passed on to Mitya in the trenches. After reading it
he said, “Everything that’s written here is the truth.”
There were Germans, too, who spoke out against the
war that was only making the capitalists richer. People
in other countries said the same.
“Lenin is our true friend. He always speaks the
truth.” Workers, peasants and soldiers of many lands
where Lenin’s writings became known shared these
thoughts.
47
THE WORKERS AND SOLDIERS
OF RUSSIA GET RID OF THE TSAR
T
Ji_he war dragged on.
St. Petersburg was now called Petrograd. There was
hunger in the city. Mothers would leave their homes at
night to line up outside the bakeries. The lines were very
long. The women would stand there all through the
night, because at home their children were hungry. In
the morning the bakeries would finally open, and bread
would be rationed at two hundred grams for each person.
The bread was of a very poor quality, because it was
made of old flour. Even so, there was not enough to go
around. There was a demonstration of working men and
women.
“We want bread! Give us bread! Down with the tsar!
Down with the tsar’s war!” they shouted.
The tsar sent his troops to break up the demonstra-
tion, but instead the soldiers raised their rifles into the
air and shouted, “End the war! Down .. with the tsar!”
The soldiers and workers of Russia united and
overthrew the tsar. This was in February 1917. Although
there was no more tsar, the landowners and capitalists
set up their own government. They said to the people,
“There’s no tsar any longer. Now we all have to join
forces: landowners, factory owners, workers, soldiers and
peasants, and build a new life. But in order to do this we
must first win the war.”
The workers and soldiers of Petrograd said, “No! The
landowners and capitalists are our enemies. How can we
join them? We do not want to fight to make them richer.”
The workers in the factories and the soldiers in their
regiments elected their own representatives. They orga-
nized the Soviets (Councils) of Workers’ and Soldiers’
Deputies. They told their deputies they were to take over
the governing of the country. Soon Soviets of Workers’
and Soldiers’ Deputies were formed all over the country.
48
*
LENIN, THE WORKERS, SOLDIERS
AND PEASANTS JOIN FORCES
l^enin was anxious to return to Russia, and although
it was difficult to travel across countries that were at
war, he was able to reach Petrograd in April 1917.
Workers from all over the city came to the station to
meet him, as did many armed soldiers. There were also
armored cars.
The moment Lenin appeared he was caught up and
raised to the top of an armored car so that everyone
might see and hear him.
Lenin told the workers and soldiers not to lay down
their arms, for although they had overthrown the tsar,
they still had to get rid of the capitalists and the
landowners to take over the governing of the country.
Lenin and other Party members often spoke at mass
meetings of workers and soldiers. Together they decided:
the workers and soldiers were strong enough to take over
the land, factories and mills and hand them over to the
people. Then the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and
Peasants’ Deputies would govern the country. The
capitalists and landowners massed the last of their
forces: the police, gendarmes and police spies. They
wanted to arrest and murder Lenin, but the workers hid
him safely away near Petrograd, on the bank of Lake
Razliv. He was taken to a hut for mowers that had been
set up on a meadow beside a haystack. From there he
wrote to his comrades in Petrograd, saying that the time
had come for the workers, soldiers and peasants to join
forces and get rid of the capitalists and landowners. Then
they would establish their own workers’ and peasants’
government.
50
THE GREAT OCTOBER
SOCIALIST REVOLUTION
3
Uoon it was autumn. Life in the trenches had be-
come truly unbearable for the soldiers, and they de-
cided to send a group of deputies to Lenin to ask his
advice on how to end the war. Ivan’s son Mitya was one
of this group. When they arrived in Petrograd there was
shooting in the streets. Workers, sailors and soldiers
armed with rifles and machine-guns were all hurrying in
the same direction. They were going to battle the troops
defending the government of the landowners and capital-
ists. The lettering on the red banners they carried read:
“Long Live the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolution! , All
Power to the Soviets!”, “End the War!
“Where can we find Lenin?” Mitya asked.
“Go on to the Smolny. Lenin is directing the uprising
from there,” he was told. .
Mitya found the Smolny. It was a great mansion that
had once been a finishing school for the daughters of the
nobility. Now it was the headquarters of the uprising.
Lenin was guiding the uprising from here. He worked
around the clock. Dispatches from all over the city were
brought here to him: the soldiers had taken over an
ammunition depot; a detachment of workers was in
control of the telephone exchange, which meant that
orders could be given by telephone to all parts of the city;
other workers’ detachments had gained control of the
central telegraph office and now the Smolny was in
contact by telegraph with the entire country.
However, the members of the government of the rich
would not surrender. They gathered in the tsar’s Winter
Palace and refused to obey the decisions of the Soviets.
The crew of the “Aurora” brought the cruiser up the
Neva River and dropped anchor across from the Winter
Palace. They fired blank shells, for they did not want to
destroy the palace. At the same time detachments of
workers and soldiers approached the Winter Palace from
the city. They occupied the palace and arrested the
members of the government of the rich. That put an end
once and for all to the rule of the rich over the working
people in Russia. The Great October Socialist Revolution
had triumphed. This took place on October 25, 1917.
Each year the Soviet people celebrate this victory, as
do the working people of all countries, for this victory
marked the beginning of their victories.
LENIN, HEAD OF THE WORKERS'
AND PEASANTS' GOVERNMENT
r
Mhe workers, soldiers and peasants decided that they
would govern the country through the Soviets of Work-
ers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. All working people
would elect their deputies to the Soviets. That was how
the Soviet Workers’ and Peasants’ Republic came into
being. Lenin was elected head of the Soviet Government.
For the first time in history workers and peasants had
become their own masters.
There was so much to be done. The first and most
important task was to put an end to the war. Lenin
appealed to the working people of all the warring
countries on behalf of the workers and peasants of Soviet
Russia, calling upon them to sign a peace treaty.
In Soviet Russia the land that had belonged to the
landowners was handed over to the peasants. In the
villages the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies decided just
how the land was to be divided up. First to be given land
of their own were the poorest peasant families. Ivan was
given a plot and a fine horse from the landowner’s
stables.
A factory or mill cannot be divided up. That is why
all the factories and mills became the property of the
people and were managed by the workers themselves. No
longer did they slave from dawn to dusk as they had
before the revolution. Now there was an eight-hour
working day.
Lenin said it would be impossible to build a new life
without proper knowledge, and so another important
decision was taken: as many new schools as possible were
to be opened, both for children and for adults; there were
to be more libraries and reading rooms, not only in the
cities, but in the villages as well; more newspapers and
books were to be published.
54
The Communist Party decided to appoint Nadezhda
Krupskaya to a post in the People’s Commissariat of
Education. She worked there all her remaining years,
devoting her energies to seeing that all of the country’s
children were attending school, so that there would be no
more illiterate or semiliterate people in the country; to
establishing libraries everywhere; to making it possible
for all Soviet people to know their civic rights and duties
and thus to be able to take part in the work of the
Soviets and understand the workings of their govern-
ment.
55
THE UNION OF WORKERS AND PEASANTS
I
_M-he war ended, but there was hunger, poverty and
ruin in Soviet Russia. The factories and mills were closed
down, the fields were barren, the railroads and locomo-
tives were wrecked.
Masha went to work in a factory that produced farm
machinery. She said, “If we make metal plows for the
peasants they won’t have to use wooden plows. They’ll be
able to plow deeper, and there’ll be more food for the
people.”
Mitya returned home to his native village, where the
landowner’s fields had been divided up among the
peasants.
Mitya had seen much in the years he had been away.
He had met with workers and visited factories. He had
seen that although there were many workers in a factory,
each had his own task to do and each did his share to
complete a job. This made the work go faster.
“The peasants should join their small plots and farm
the land together,” the workers had said to him. “They’ll
raise much bigger crops that way. Then there’ll be much
more food in the country, enough for the peasants and
also for the workers, teachers, doctors and all the Soviet
people.”
Mitya took their advice. He organized a commune in
his village. The members of the commune joined their
plots and set up one great farm. They divided the various
jobs among them: some plowed and sowed, others tended
the horses and still others worked in the smithy. Each
had his own job to do.
Lenin knew how hard the people had to work and he
did, too, never sparing himself. He said that as long as
all the working people of the Soviet Republic helped each
other they would overcome the ruin caused by the war.
Lenin’s words came true. The peasants reaped greater
harvests. The factories and mills were coming back to
life, and the railroads were beginning to function again.
Trains were now carrying grain and farm produce to the
cities and returning with things the peasants needed so
badly. Now there was good farm machinery for their
fields.
LENIN AND THE RED ARMY
I
Ji he former landowners, factory and mill owners
wanted to go on living in luxury, and so they declared
war on the Soviet Republic. The capitalists of other
countries helped them by giving them great sums of
money and arms, and by sending troops into the Soviet
Republic.
The Soviet workers and peasants said, “We’d rather
die than live as we did before! We’ll defend our Soviet
State!”
Lenin appealed to the workers and peasants of the
country to create an army that would be able to defend
the Soviet Republic.
Thousands of young workers and peasants volunteered
for active service in the Red Army. They fought under
red banners against their old enemies, and these red
banners gave the people’s army its name.
The war lasted for several years, and all through it
the Red Army troops fought bravely.
Lenin liked to talk with the young Red Army men
and commanders. He liked to listen to their songs and
especially to one which had the following refrain:
Never, never,
Never, never
Will the Communards be slaves!
Workers in other countries tried to help the Red Army
as best they could: they refused to load shells for the
foreign troops that were fighting against the Soviet
people; some British and French soldiers and sailors
refused to fight against the Red Army and went over to
the side of Soviets.
The Red Army destroyed its enemies. From then on it
has protected the borders of the Soviet Republic.
58
A TRUE FRIEND OF THE WORKERS
AND PEASANTS OF THE WORLD
JL „
Republic were their own masters, although the working
people of other lands wanted to get rid of their rulers,
too.
Lenin addressed the Communists of all countries and
suggested that they gather in Moscow and discuss how to
fight the capitalists. The Soviet workers and peasants
were ready to help their brothers. Soon delegates of
working people from many lands began meeting there.
How did these brave people reach Moscow? Here is
but one example. A ship was plying its way from
England to Germany. The sailors had hidden one of the
delegates deep in the hold where coal for the ship’s
furnaces was stored. It was not easy to smuggle food to
him during the journey. In Germany the sailors helped
him slip past the German police.
In the face of great danger and with great difficulty
many delegates reached Moscow. The return trip was still
more difficult, for the police in the different countries
were searching for everyone who had been to Moscow. If
the delegates were found they were arrested, beaten,
sentenced to hard labor and even put to death.
Still, this did not stop the Communists of other
countries. They continued coming to Moscow to meet at
their congresses. Lenin helped the foreign comrades to
understand how they could improve the lives of the
working people in their own countries and throughout
the world.
“Workers of the world, unite!” was their slogan.
60
LENIN IS REMEMBERED AND REVERED
BY WORKING PEOPLE
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
enin was a strong man. To keep healthy he did
exercises even when he was in prison, because he knew
he would need a lot of strength for the struggle ahead.
An attempt was made on Lenin’s life by enemies of the
Soviet Republic. He was gravely wounded. Lenin reco-
vered and continued working very hard. Then his
condition took a turn for the worse. He became seriously
ill. :
Lenin was taken to the village of Gorki not far from
Moscow. His doctors thought he would recover there. But
on January 21, 1924 the country learned the terrible
news: Comrade Lenin had died.
Thousands of working men and women came to the
funeral. Thousands of peasants came in from the
villages. When Lenin was being laid to rest in the
Mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow factory whistles
throughout the country blew a last farewell. Every train
and vehicle in the country came to a standstill for one
long minute. News of the death of the workers’ great
leader spread quickly throughout the world. There was
not a single country in which the working people did not
grieve.
Lenin is no longer with us, but he is remembered by
working people all over the world. His memory is
revered. The cause he fought for is their cause.
As Lenin lay mortally ill he dictated his last articles,
instructing the Soviet people to work hard for a good life
for the working people in the Soviet Union and the world
and to build a communist society.
LENIN'S BEHESTS
TO LOVE AND SAFEGUARD
THE SOVIET LAND
E
very person loves his native land, the country
where he was born and grew up. He loves its fields,
forests, rivers, cities and villages. Lenin also loved his
native land, Russia. He loved the Volga River and the
city of St. Petersburg with its large factories and mills,
but he felt especially close to the workers and peasants of
Russia. They fought stubbornly for their liberation. Many
staunch Communists came from their ranks. The Com-
munist Party was always in the vanguard of this
struggle against the capitalists and landowners. Al-
though many fell in the battle, many more brave men
and women continued the fight.
65
The workers and peasants of Soviet Russia were the
first in the world to create a nation without a tsar, a
king, landowners or capitalists and to govern it them-
selves. The Red Army defended Soviet power from the
attacks of the capitalists. Lenin devoted all his energies
to making Soviet Russia strong, to providing support for
the working people of all countries. He instructed the
Soviet people to love their Soviet land and to safeguard
it.
Many years passed after Lenin’s death.
In 1941 the fascists, German capitalists who were the
working people’s greatest enemies, attacked the Soviet
Union. While the Soviet Army fought bravely on the
battlefields, the entire Soviet people helped their army by
working in defense plants and producing as much food as
possible on the collective farms.
The Soviet people destroyed the fascist armies and
defended their Motherland. No one can conquer it. The
Soviet Army is stronger than ever now. The Soviet people
have worked hard to increase the might of their nation,
for they know that if the Soviet Army and the Soviet
Union are strong, no one will ever be able to prevent
them from building a communist society.
TO BE FRIENDS
WITH THE WORKING PEOPLE
OF ALL LANDS
T
-M here is a holiday which we especially like and that is
May Day. May 1st is Solidarity Day among working
people of all lands.
“Workers of the world, unite!”
“Freedom and equality for all peoples!”
These words can be heard all over the world. They are
spoken in many tongues by people of all races.
Lenin did much to help the working people of the
world understand and know each other. He taught the
Soviet people to be friends with the working people of all
countries, to help them in their struggle for freedom. The
Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet
people will always support their struggle.
During Lenin’s lifetime the workers and peasants of
one country only, of Russia, overthrew the capitalists and
came to govern their own land. Now there are other such
nations and their number is growing. Some of the most
oppressed peoples of the world have won their freedom.
There are many young Africans attending college and
university in the Soviet Union, where there is no and
never has been any race prejudice. These young Africans
come from countries which have but recently gotten rid
of their white capitalist rulers.
68
The Soviet Union helps these and other countries
which have won their freedom to build electric power
stations, factories, schools and hospitals. Our ships sail to
Africa, Asia and Cuba, delivering trucks, machinery and
many other things people who are building a new way of
life need.
The capitalists still govern many countries of the
world.
They would like to destroy the Soviet Union and the
other countries from which the capitalists have been
banished. Yet, they dare not start a new war, for they
know the Land of Soviets is strong and is supported by
other countries that have won their freedom. Besides, the
working people of those nations in which the capitalists
still rule are against war. The working people of the
world say, “There shall be no war! The peoples of all
nations want peace and friendship.”
However, there is still much to be done to bring
everlasting peace to the world. Peace on Earth means the
working people of all lands will have a bright future and
communism will become a reality.
PLENTY FOR ALL
•rfHS-s twilight falls we go over to the switch on the wall
and turn on the light. But how does electricity come into
the room?
“That’s easy,” you will say. “It comes along the^wires
that are strung from the poles outside our house.”
But where do the wires come from? From electric
power stations where great generators produce electricity.
Electricity does not only bring light to houses, schools
and hospitals. Electricity puts trains, ships and machi-
nery into motion. Some machines work underground,
helping miners to mine coal or ore; others pump oil to the
surface; still others make work in the fields easier.
In the factories machines help man to make buses,
automobiles, airplanes and so many other things they
cannot even be enumerated. In the factories and mills
machines weave cloth for our clothing, sew shoes, print
books, bind notebooks and make many things we need
every day. Farm machinery makes it possible to raise
good crops and to have an abundance of produce.
Machines make our lives easier. It takes a lot of
70
electricity to run all these machines. This means there
must be many electric power stations, both big and small.
Before the revolution and the establishment of Soviet
power there were no large electric power stations in
Russia. Soon after Lenin became the head of the
government he summoned the country’s leading scientists
and engineers and asked them to draw up a plan of the
electric power stations the country needed. They drew up
such a plan. Since then Soviet scientists, engineers,
technologists and workers have been building the world’s
largest electric power stations, giving the country ever
more new machinery for the factories and mills and the
fields of the collective and state farms. With their help
the Soviet people have built spaceships which have taken
man far into space.
There are many electric power stations, factories,
mills and machines in the Soviet Union, but the country
still needs more to achieve Lenin’s dream of plenty for
all. Only then will it be possible to build a communist
society.
IVH
• MORE KNOWLEDGE
AND GREATER SKILL
P
eople who think that machines will start doing all
the work for us, so that we’ll only have to push buttons,
are wrong. Man with his skilled hands and fine mind
always was and always will be the main working force.
Man makes machines and man controls them. One must
know a lot to design even the simplest machine. Besides,
one can control a machine only if one knows how it
works.
Just think how hard the famed Soviet cosmonauts
have to study for their flights. If they did not, they could
never achieve their amazing feats in space. They
continue to study even after their flights.
Scientists are constantly discovering new facts about
man and nature. All this new information has to be
studied to be understood, otherwise we will not really
know what is correct and what is incorrect. We shall not
be able to work as well as we might have otherwise, and
our lives will not be made as easy as they might have
been.
Lenin was extremely interested in all the latest
scientific and technological developments. He wanted to
know about the modern machines that were being
invented in the Soviet Union and abroad. If possible, he
would go to see a new machine and ask to be told about
the way it worked.
Lenin was concerned about the younger generation
acquiring as much knowledge as possible. He wanted
schoolchildren to learn what working in a factory or in
the fields was like. He wanted them be a help to their
elders, to know about tools and machinery. More know-
ledge and greater skill were needed to build a communist
society. This was Lenin’s behest.
74
LENIN’S CAUSE AND COMMUNISM
WILL TRIUMPH !
H
llow you have read this book and discovered how the
grandfathers and grandmothers of today’s Soviet children
worked and struggled for a life without a tsar, capitalists
or landowners and how their fathers and mothers are
building a communist society.
You have learned just a little bit about Vladimir
Lenin, the closest friend, comrade, leader and teacher of
all working people, and about the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union. You have learned that life is constant-
ly changing for the better for those who work. Very much
has been achieved in the Soviet Union. All of its children
are well-fed and well-clothed. Every child attends school.
However, much must still be done in order that there be
more of everything and that children in all countries
have a good life, too.
76
A
Soviet children are the grandchildren and great-
grandchildren of peasants like Ivan and workers like
Vasily. They are the ones who will carry on their cause.
Even now they are doing a lot of good. It is important
to think of others and be their friend, to be kind to
smaller children, to be a good pupil and a help to one’s
parents, for each Soviet child is a part of the large and
friendly society of Soviet people.
Lenin wanted all Soviet children to be healthy, happy
and educated citizens of the new society. Together with
their people, they will build communism, which is the
most just and happiest way of life.
LENIN’S GAUSE
AND
COMMUNISM
WILL TRIUMPH!
Malysh Publishers Moscow
